Expats, tell me what aspect or social norm of your new country was strange to you?

[AjasLipstick]

I am a Brit in Oz and for me, the hardest thing to get used to was Sunday trading hours being like the UK in the 70s.

The weirdest thing was how much less formal people are...kids are dressed very informally and parties for children never have kids dressed up in party dresses but in shorts and t shirts. I like it now I'm used to it though.

Germany...wtf is it with blowing your nose at the table?? We avoid eating out in cold season, it makes me want to puke.

Also, men pulling onto the hard shoulder to piss and not turn their back to traffic.

We were stuck in, yet another, traffic jam next to a rest area. I looked over and there was a lorry driver sitting in his cab, door open, grinning like an idiot. Why? He had his meat and two veg out. I had no idea human testicles got that big....

I'd also be interested in seeing what people thought had changed when they went back to/visited their country of origin.

Tribalism, like Scot Catholics loathing Scot Protestants. Just Wow.

I’ve lived in the west of Scotland my whole life and this still baffles me :/

People actually shop at different towns just so they can avoid it.

I definitely sympathize with them. I am in a resort area. With the influx of tourists on the weekends, most of whom have obviously never been to roundabout school, I sometimes take a much longer route to avoid it.

I don't think I've ever heard of a football match being cancelled for rain in the UK. Could be wrong?

there was an advert for a travel agency on the back of the local buses “Bugger off for bugger all”

just priceless!

AnElderlyLady making a foreign accent 'the main thing about you' is also VERY usual in the UK. Though I must say, much less from young people (up to 35 ish). Very common for middle aged and older peple to describe a friend or anyone else as 'that French girl', 'my dogwaler is good, the Italian guy' etc - I find it extremely frustrating! People especially those who moved t the UK when young and are now a Brit national even, still decsribed by the prevous nationality as if it's a defining factor.
With exception of some highly educated, ususallly left-wing Brits, maybe (and as I said, the youmg generation).

sorry for typos, very little light where I am now

Whoever said about school donations actually being fees in NZ, this is a common misunderstanding even amongst NZrs.

Schools have fees and donations. The fees are compulsory, the donations are optional. The fees cover things like photocopying, digital licences and trips, while the donations go towards general school spending as determined by the board of trustees. Up to one third of the donation can be reimbursed by the IRD.

It is becoming more common for low decile schools to charge no fee and to make no request for donations, but in other state schools, donations can be as high as $2000.

2000!! Wow.

Milk coming in plastic bags that you then have to decant into a jug

@TheLastNigel you're not meant to decant the milk. You can get special jugs for milk bags. Put the bag in the jug, snip the corner and pour.

Davros a football match would only be cancelled "for rain" if the pitch was waterlogged. It happened a couple of weeks ago (because snow had made the pitch sodden) but it's pretty rare. A match wouldn't be called off for rain falling no. They'd play in snow or rain. A premiership match was played on snow last week (or was it an fa cup quarter final? I was in holiday and lost track a bit) and I myself watched a match in heavy snow a couple of years back at the molineux on a Tuesday night.

That's what I thought BOOP, it's not like it happens often. Good to see the Prima Donnas suffer a bit for their £££!
I remember standing on the terrace at Nottingham Forest with snow round my feet, I've never been so cold.

ink I love those bags of milk. So much less waste. Def get the special jug. Sadly the bags of milk are all up in Canada. Here in the Us it's gallon jugs of milk which are bloody heavy.

Ohh I'd forgotten bags of milk! You had to buy a special jug they fit into you'd snip a corner off for pouring the milk out. Seemed weird at first but really cuts down on the space taken up by milk cartons in the bin.

Yeah, those cricket and tennis prima donnas are off at the first drop of rain

Interesting about the rain. In the US baseball games will be postponed because of rain (hence the expression "rain check") but football (American) will continue to be played in the rain, unless it gets really bad.

I was being a bit sarky Seneca because Davros called footballers prima donnas (tired cliche anyone?). I think the difference is whether the surface is vastly affected by the dampness.

The court at Wimbledon would be unplayable if it got wet. As would a cricket wicket. While rain of course affects how the pitch plays in football or rugby, it's not totally unplayable until it gets waterlogged so the ball won't move on it

And even then some matches will try to carry

Oooh I’m going to have to read this thread properly later!

I moved to Ireland from the uk in 2005.

1. ‘what’s the Craic?’ (Pronounced crack) first thought was ‘holy shit, that’s legal?’

2. people saying hello to strangers and having conversations on public transport. It’s like an inverted London.

3. everyone knows everyone. Even if you’re not from Ireland there will be a connection. Sure, you know your man in the shop, his aunt used to go to school with my aunt and her brother in law had a dog that he got off your man’s son who was in last week fixing the washing machine. I’m serious.

4. it’s not ‘sandwich’: it’s ‘sangwich’.

5. don’t insult Taytos by buying walkers instead.

6. never. Ever. Leave the immersion heater on. You’d swear it was a nuclear bomb not a boiler. Never leave the immersion on.

Aww, this reminds me why I love Ireland

6) never. Ever. Leave the immersion heater on. You’d swear it was a nuclear bomb not a boiler. Never leave the immersion on.

In Malta they call it a 'Geyser' - I loved that, although it took a while for my landlady to understand what I was talking about when it started leaking until I learned that!

6 is so true.

Des Bishop put it on a t'shirt.
Or was it Hairy Baby? V funny though. Ive no immersion. I couldnt handle that stress

Milk bags sound clever

Another difference (but mostly noticed upon returning):

UK school: children have rain gear at school and are encouraged to play out in the rain.
Portuguese school: children are expected to melt in the rain and footballs will be confiscated if said children play in light drizzle.

Football practice tends to be cancelled if it rains (the coaches are the prima donnas, or snowflakes), but games are played under downpours.

To be fair though, if children in the uk weren't allowed to play in the rain, they'd rarely get much playing done.

Something I noticed upon returning to the uk is how much people go out in the sun. Children are sent out in the midday sun in June and expected to put suncream on in the morning, at home hours earlier! I was as I'm now so used to Brazilian obsession with never getting even an eyelash in the sun between 11 and 4. The British relationship with the weather is often a bit odd though. I didn't know that till I left and saw how others do things.

Re bags of milk...it's all just more plastic isn't it? Plastic cartons are recyclable.....plastic bags like that really aren't usually.